Chapter Eleven : The Fifth and the last child {Cont’d}

March 26, 2018

Dennis follows her to the
hostel and she discovered the hostel was really empty that they were almost
locking the hostel ,she took her bag, changed, came out with her bag and met Richard under a tree…

Nina: Richard why I’m I leaving today and you are not.

Richard: I still have some things to do but I’ll come to uncle’s house
tomorrow. Did you not see how your hostel looks?

Nina: I did but I could squat with some girls from the other hostel.

Richard: did you here about a girl that stayed around the hostel last
year?

Nina: I did and so?

Richard: thank God you know is not something I made up. Look I’m just
trying to protect you and daddy will deal with me if anything happens to you.
Besides I don’t want anything to happen to you, please don’t argue and just go
home.

Nina: how I’m I going?

Richard: there’s a bus that will take everybody to the junction, from
there you see a bus that will take you to town to get to uncle’s house.

Nina: [walking] okay.

Dennis walks her to the
bus.They get to the gate and she enters the bus, the bus wasn’t moving yet so
she wanted to give a goodbye hug to him. She had never hugged him in front of
people before but this time she didn’t care so they hugged each other and the
bus was ready to leave, then she hopped in. From the school gate to the
junction was like going to another village, it was very far and all she could
think of was when he said he loved her then tears rolled down her eye in the
bus but she didn’t want anyone to notice. But Anita noticed and assured her she
will meet Dennis in the main campus.

Some girls were still in
school, sleeping around with their lecturers and co-coordinators for high score
in their grades so they could be in the main campus while some were drinking
and partying with some guys that were still around. That was the end of the
programme and everyone went home, waited and prayed for their admission letter.

Nina and her brother went
home and continued their daily routine hoping and praying that they gain
admission because Richard just couldn’t handle more drama from his Dad and step mom;
Nina also didn’t want the disgrace and wanted to see Dennis’s face again.
Sometimes Nina would go to stay with her sister in town; she always called
Dennis with a business line because she didn’t have a phone. Whenever she calls
Dennis she loved it and spent almost an hour talking to him, some times
30mins,45mins,50mins at most and a minute was 50naira then but luckily for her
the girl that was in charge of the calls could not read minutes well.

Chapter Eleven : The Fifth and the last child {Cont'd}

They use
landlines back then and the sales girl could not tell the call times effectively
so whenever it read 40mins the girl would calculate the amount for 4mins and
Nina was so surprised how cheap it was to make a long call. From that day she
became their customer. Meanwhile Dennis was thinking she was from a rich
family, for her to be able to make such long calls. Nina had no idea what she
was doing until the manager decided to handle the calls herself, luckily for
Nina she made a call of 15mins, the money was not so much compared to the calls
she had been making. So from that day on she stopped calling for that long and
gave Dennis her sisters number so he could call her.

Valentine

Antonia works with an airline,
she was trying to make ends meet after she left her Dad’s house. She was doing
quite well for herself. She and Nina out of all her siblings were really close
although it wasn’t like that when they were in their father’s house but later
they grew to be very close. It was valentine, her sister wasn’t in a serious
relationship and her boyfriend was far away so she spent it with her sister
Antonia and Lizzy (Antonia’s friend).

Lizzy: Tonia, how do you intend to spend valentine?

Antonia: who cares about valentine? Men are dogs, I don’t need to spend
valentine with a man to feel good.

Lizzy: yeah, that’s right. I got some chocolate though. Nina, how are
you?

Nina: I’m fine, thank you.

Lizzy: do you know that my silly boyfriend. A week to valentine he
started saying nonsense just to piss me off so I could breakup with him.

Antonia: imagine! Has he called you today?

Lizzy: no, that’s what he wanted.

Nina was just watching and
listening to what they were saying. They said all sorts of things about men and
it got her worried about Dennis if he was the right guy for her or if she was
ready to start dating. They ate their chocolates and drank a bottle of vodka
until they were all tipsy. Nina didn’t call Dennis, she wanted to see if he was
going to call her but he didn’t and by 10pm that same day she sent a text to
him that it was over. He tried calling her back but she didn’t want to answer
till the next day…..

Nina :{ phone rings} hello!

Dennis: hi, I got your text. What have I done?

Nina: what was yesterday?

Dennis: I was expecting your call. You told me not to call your sisters
line until you buzz me.

Nina: you should have called.

Dennis: I would but I didn’t know if your sister was with you. You
didn’t authorize me to call her without buzzing me. Okay, I’m sorry.

Nina: no, I’m angry. You could not even call until I texted you.

Dennis: I’m sorry please. Is that why you want to breakup with me? I
love you; you know we are far away from each other please let’s not have any
fight okay?

Nina: okay, I’m not going fight with you.

Dennis: I love you.

Nina: I love you too.

Nina realized that he spent
19minutes talking to her, which means he cared. She told herself that it’s because
she didn’t have a cellphone that’s why it’s hard to reach her so she should
keep doing the calling or buzzing him with her sisters line whenever she’s
around.

Click HERE for Chapter Eleven Part 1